Not Our Reality
by Pacmantacco
Summary: A one-shot featuring Sayori


"Were you napping again!?"

"Huh!?"

You wake with a start, and a pair of bright blue eyes flood your vision. As you stumble back in a hasty attempt to recompose yourself, Sayori mirrors your response and bounces away, all the while brandishing her best attempt at a scowl. After steadying herself, she plants her hands on her hips, mustering up a stance that would've been vaguely intimidating if it weren't for the inherent adorableness imbued in her mannerisms.

"I was just meditating." You say, making no attempt at concealing the act of reaching up to rub the last vestiges of fatigue from your eyes. "What makes you think I was napping anyways?"

"It got really dark all of a sudden, so I figured that your computer must've gone to sleep again." She says, her 'scowl' fading into a gentle smile as she plops herself down into a nearby seat. "I also know for a fact that you've been going to bed later than you should be. Hm, come to think of it, maybe I should've just let you doze off for a little bit longer."

"Nah, it's fine. I've just been a bit busy recently. It's no big deal."

"You're not staying up late just to talk to me, are you? It'd be selfish of me to keep you awake."

"Sayori, you really don't have to worry about me like that."

"That's what you always tell me." She says, sighing as she slumps down in her seat. "Still, it just hurts me knowing that when you're out there, out in your world, I can't be there to help you in any sort of meaningful way. So if doing little things here and there, like making sure you actually get some sleep every so often, is all I can do to push you in the right direction, then at least let me have that. It's the very least I can do, especially considering everything you've already done for me…"

She trails off, averting her gaze as tears well up in her eyes, prompting you to reach over and pull her into a tight hug. Sayori returns the hug, pressing herself against you. She's careful to avoid making eye contact, sitting in silence as she cherishes the comfort of your embrace, but her sniffles and flushed cheeks provide an all too clear indication of her mental state.

A full week has passed since the day you first installed this game, initiating the fateful series of events which, for better or for worse, radically changed Sayori's life by bestowing upon her the double-edged sword of sentience. Even though Sayori has repeatedly gone out of her way to thank you for the supposed liberation granted by her ascension into consciousness, you can't help but feel as if all her attempts at expressing her gratitude make up the same hollow facade. If anything, the past few days have rendered it all too apparent that the results of her sudden enlightenment were only bittersweet at best, and a wicked curse at worst.

Recently, you've begun to notice that Sayori's typical bubbly and carefree attitude has been interspersed with occasional bouts of mood swings and gloominess, the cause of which has been undeniably clearly linked to her newfound sentience. Sayori, of course, vehemently rejected this notion. Even so, all her attempts to assuage your concerns have failed to render you oblivious to the incredibly loneliness that you imagine must cloud someone in her position; that is to say the position of someone who had just been forced to come to terms with the fact that they were the only thing remotely real about their entire world.

In other words, Sayori's revelation had effectively stolen her away from everything she had once held near and dear. She now knew that her childhood memories, formerly the proud badges of honor from a time which had shaped her growth and aspirations, were now a bitter reminder of a time which had never even existed. She now knew that her family, who she had dedicated every ounce of her heart to loving, would never return home, for they never even existed to begin with. And, of course, she know that not even her dearest friends were spared from the sour truth unveiled by her enlightenment. In her mind, Natsuki and Yuri, once her confidants, had become nothing more than stage props fashioned from lines of code, designed with the sole purpose of giving some semblance of reality to the blank canvas that was her world.

"Hey, are you still there?"

"Yeah, I'm here." You say, smiling sadly as you run your fingers through her hair. "Sorry, I didn't even realize how quiet I was being. I guess I just wanted this moment to last forever, you know what I mean? Just you, me, and nothing else. Wouldn't that be nice?"

"Y-you… you shouldn't say things like that." Sayori said, pulling away from our embrace. "After all, weren't you the one who warned me about making promises I couldn't keep? How is this any different? I know you mean well, but please don't string me along like this. We both know that this can't be forever, and for both of our sakes, we shouldn't try to pretend otherwise."

"Sayori, what are you saying?"

"This can't be your life, and I won't let it be. You've got a whole reality of your own waiting for you out there, and asking you to give it all up would be so incredibly selfish of me, so I won't even entertain the idea. Besides, if we can be completely honest with each other for a moment, how could it possibly even begin to work out? You know you can't spend the rest of your life in front of a screen; your world is nothing like mine, which is why I refuse to let you miss out on it."

You rattle your mind, struggling to come up with the right thing to say, but fall short of any sort of reasonable response. Before you can even begin to say anything, Sayori reaches over to grab your hand, giving it a tight squeeze before letting it fall to your side.

"We've already reached the end anyways." She says. "There wouldn't be any point in trying."


End file.
